Haglund's Heel

observations 11-29

Ballet Nacional del Sodre has finally named a replacement for Julio Bocca. Igor Yebra,  a member of the generation of startlingly good dancers from the Victor Ullate School in Spain that produced Angel Corella, Joaquin De Luz, and Tamara Rojo, will now lead Uruguay's national ballet company. From the outside looking in, it's a promising choice if Yebra can deal with the political climate with the same force that Julio did. So, now it's official: Julio has a lot of free time on his hands although he says he plans to keep contributing to the artistry of the students and professionals as a teacher.

––––––––––––––––––––

Congratulations to Blaine Hoven for snagging two ABT performances of Nutcracker in Orange County while the first cast prince recovers from hernia surgery. Here's hoping for extra tight stitches made of fishing pole wire. It is curious indeed how there are a thousand tickets left for the Fakerina's Nutcracker performance on Wednesday the 13th. Her handlers and stakeholders haven't yet bought out the tickets for that particular performance to give them away. Nor did they buy out the tickets and give them away for the Fakerina's fall season performances. One might think that the big theater-side banner of the Fakerina in a faux sexy encounter that may well have led to a man's hernia would have sent the box office crazy. But nope, the Fakerina didn't ignite the box office and her handlers and stakeholders didn't buy out the tickets to make her look worthwhile.

Meanwhile, the Fakerina's clutzing around as Aurora in Australia was met with agent-created hoopla and critical faint praise that was as damning as it gets. When has a much ballyhooed Aurora debut ever been reviewed with absolutely no mention whatsoever of the Rose Adagio while much was made of the dancer's lovely personality? LOL. Her steroidal PR campaign highlighting her faux victimization continues to make it easy for the press to create click-bait instead of writing criticism. For certain, she will be the most asterisked dancer in history. (*Danced Swan Lake but couldn't do the steps; *danced Don Q but couldn't do the steps; *danced Giselle but couldn't do the steps; *danced Sleeping Beauty but couldn't do the steps; *danced La Fille mal Gardee but couldn't do the steps; *danced many other principal roles for which the steps had to be simplified.) Without ever having given a single performance of high merit in the classics, she's still managed to manipulate ABT's management into putting her under the spotlight while the much better dancers stand deferentially in the shadows as real victims paying the price of misguided affirmative action. ABT's peddling of its 3rd rate pay-to-play hackerina continues despite the Misty-fatigue among the paying members of the audience.

It is sad how ballet is seeing more and more dancers with media-made careers instead of stage-made careers. Even some with honest talent are more concerned with getting it right in the media rather than getting it right on stage. Hopefully, their future body of work will include performances that are memorable for their own dancing rather than for the surrounding media circus, their still photos of pretty poses, or the other dancers who shared the stage.

––––––––––––––––––––

It's going to be a light Nutcracker season here on the blog. The general public prices at New York City Ballet have reached a tipping point. Soon NYCB's Nutcracker will be only for the kid-performers' relatives who get discounts. What would Balanchine say if he saw a $300 price for a Nutcracker ticket? He might quip, "Don't buy." If some compelling casting shows up later in the run, we might splurge for a bad seat.

 

observations 11-21

The Aussies are going to love, love, love our Yuriko Kajiya as Aurora in tomorrow's matinee performance of Sleeping Beauty with The Australian Ballet in Sydney. Such a complete, completely glorious, and gloriously honest artist... Click on Nicola Curry's I-gram link to read about her long history with Yuriko that now spans three continents.

 Here's a clip of a recent stage rehearsal. Video by Nicola. 

––––––––––––––––––––

Meanwhile back at the dude ranch, it appears that ABT is going to completely ignore Jerome Robbins during his official Centennial Celebration that is being held worldwide. What, they didn't make enough money off of Fancy Free -- that is, when they had a complete cast who could dance it? It might have been interesting to see the 1946 Facsimile that Robbins, Nora Kaye and John Kriza premiered on Broadway to music by Leonard Bernstein. Or perhaps the (1947) Summer Day PdD that he created and danced with Annabelle Lyon could have made a one-time appearance. Really, ABT doesn't have any reason to join in the worldwide Robbins Centennial Celebration, really? Not one kind word? Not one single moment of special recognition?

PERFORMANCES (other than NYCB)

HAMBURG BALLETT

      The Concert, Dances at a Gathering: 17 September 2017

MIAMI CITY BALLET

      Circus Polka, The Cage, In the Night, Other Dances, West Side Story Suite: 12 January 2018

STUTTGART BALLETT

      Dances at a Gathering: 13 January 2018

NEW YORK THEATRE BALLET

      Rondo, Septet, Concertino: 16 March 2018

SAN FRANCISCO BALLET

      The Cage, Fancy Free, Opus 19, Other Dances: 20 March 2018

PITTSBURGH BALLET

      Fancy Free, In the Night, West Side Story Suite: 3 May 2018

THE MUNY

      Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, 11 - 17 June 2018

LES ÉTÉS DE LA DANSE

Tribute to Jerome Robbins featuring companies from around the globe (TBA): 25 June 2018

BOSTON BALLET

      Fancy Free, Glass Pieces, Interplay: 6 Sept 2018

DUTCH NATIONAL BALLET

      Dances at a Gathering: 11 Sept 2018

PACIFIC NORTHWEST BALLET

      Afternoon of a Faun, The Concert, In the Night, Other Dances: 21 Sept 2018

      Dances at a Gathering, Interplay, West Side Story Suite: 28 Sept 2018

PARIS OPERA BALLET

      Afternoon of a Faun, Fancy Free, Glass Pieces: 28 Sept 2018

BAM / FISHMAN SPACE

      Watermill: cast TBA: October 2018

HOUSTON BALLET

      The Concert, Glass Pieces, In the Night: 7 March 2019

––––––––––––––––––––

Here's some good news:

Pennsylvania Ballet has a brand new New York Friends of Pennsylvania Ballet patron category that is going to let New Yorkers know early about casting so that we can make travel plans more easily and save money by buying early on Amtrak. New York Friends will have the opportunity to purchase early for Angel Corella's February 9th Art of Coaching event in Manhattan. That will surely be packed. Nobody wants to miss a chance to feel that Angel energy even if he is coaching instead of dancing.

Check out this link to become a New York Friend of Pennsylvania Ballet.

Pennsylvania Ballet just appointed Shelly Power as its new Executive Director. Previously the Academy Director for Houston Ballet and most recently the Artistic Director and CEO of Prix de Lausanne, she will start with PA Ballet in December. 

Stealing from a dead woman Brigadoon @ NY City Center 11/15

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Here comes the wet blanket with its nap scruffed the wrong way. Frowning wet blanket – uh-oh.

The good news is that Robert Fairchild’s theatrical and dance portrayal of Harry Beaton in last night’s gala concert presentation of Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon at New York City Center was startlingly brilliant. Here we saw a character with a dangerous razor sharp edge who made us nervous to watch. There was no element of starry Gershwin or youthful Apollo, no expressed joy of dance, no charisma. This was all heavy, darkly dramatic character development where dance steps and a serious Scottish accent conveyed the angst of the troubled Beaton who we sensed from the very beginning was tumbling out of control toward his fate. We all should be bursting with pride that Fairchild's extraordinary talent rose through and was nurtured by the ballet world to land on New York's musical theater stage.

Kelli O’Hara as Fiona sang like an angel and looked like Sally Ann Howes who played the role at New York City Center a couple of times and in a TV production opposite Robert Goulet in the 1960s. Every word from her mouth whether as song or script was perfect joy to the ear. Patrick Wilson as Tommy Albright maybe came up short of Robert Goulet in looks and pipes, but he gave an overall sincere performance, if a little dry. Assif Mandvi turned the role of Jeff Douglas into a modern day, slightly bawdy, frequently-stoop-for-the-laugh character which seemed to work for audience members who weren’t familiar with the earlier versions of Brigadoon. Stephanie J. Block took over the stage at her every entrance in a masterful portrayal of Meg Brockie and offered one of the highlights of the evening when she sang The Love of My Life.

But –

Christopher Wheeldon’s new production has fallen victim to his overused recipe of substituting video for scenery art and for scaling back production values to the point where the stage looks high school-ish even for a concert production. If Wheeldon, as he says, took all of the sugar out of Christmas for his new Joffrey Nutcracker which premiered last year, here he has taken all of Scotland out of Brigadoon. The costumes were Amish drab, maybe even too drab for the Amish. But the most offensive letdown of the evening was what he did with Agnes de Mille’s choreography.

The Playbill noted “Original dances created by Agnes de Mille” but identifies Wheeldon as having “Directed and Choreographed” this production. How intentionally misleading could that possibly be? He should have identified when and where his own original choreography appeared and, most importantly, where he simply altered de Mille’s work. That would have avoided audience members misappropriating de Mille’s genius to Wheeldon. Sadly, on opening night, Haglund heard, “That Wheeldon is a genius. The sword dance by Harry Beaton was awesome and the way Wheeldon had the women on their stomachs cheering Beaton on was brilliant.” Yeah, really. 

When de Mille created the dances for Brigadoon, she seriously sought to insert authentic Scottish movement into the choreography. She was intimately familiar with the tricks of the ballet trade and how an audience roars for them. But she saw the value of authenticity and the use of restraint in design and implementation. It all helped convey the sincerity of the story. 

In the current production, we have high kicks, six o’clock penches, and there must have been a fire sale on coupe jetes because they were everywhere. Very little in the way of Scottish dancing was incorporated into the choreography. Annoying was the frequent walking entry and exit of dancers from and to the wings for no apparent reason. Was it supposed to make the stage look like a vibrant community? Sorry, it conveyed disorganization.

We wish Wheeldon had saved his choreography for some original ballet or original stage production. It wasn’t bad, but it was completely out of place in Brigadoon. Completely. Out. Of. Place. Particularly inferior to de Mille’s work was Wheeldon’s Funeral Dance which was performed with loving care by Patricia Delgado. It was D.O.A. despite the flashing of the dancer’s pretty legs and feet.

If this Brigadoon somehow ever makes it to Broadway, it will fail fast despite the brilliant performances of Robert Fairchild, Kelli O’Hara, and Stephanie J. Block. Drab and inferior to de Mille’s productions, it really makes us worry about what we are about to see happen to her Carousel in February when Justin Peck tries once again to improve on her work. Boys, just leave the dead woman alone, will ya?

 

observations 11-9

Now this is somekinda Grigorovich Lift! Holy Moly. Fearless Stella. And that Hammoudi can hit a moving target pretty well.

 

 

A post shared by Alexandre Hammoudi (@alexhammoudi) on Nov 8, 2017 at 12:24pm PST

 

We wonder if Jared and Yuriko have seen this video. Their performance of Ratmansky's Nutcracker is still one of Haglund's life's highlights. They were the first to pull off this lift. Speaking of Yuriko Kajiya, she will perform Aurora in the Australian Ballet's Sleeping Beauty on November 22nd @ 1:30pm and again on November 25th @ 1:30pm. The company, sadly, is pointing all of its publicity to the Fakerina Celebrina who dances the evening performance on November 22nd and who most likely will have a meltdown after observing Yuriko's quasar-like performance hours before. Oh, but her agent already has a boatload of excuses docked at the pier and is lowering everyone's expectations to below sea level.

If you're anywhere near Sydney on the 22nd or 25th, don't miss Yuriko's Aurora. The lovely Amanda McGuigan (formerly of ABT, too) will be her Lilac Fairy. The elegant, noble Andrew Killian will be her Prince Désiré.

____________________

It's not too early to be planning our local Nutcracker tour this year. One we're not going to miss is Veronika Part as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Port Washington on Long Island at the Fadeyev Ballet Nutcracker on December 22nd & 23rd. (Tickets here.) Yaroslav Fadeyev and Veronika first crossed paths as students at the Vaganova Academy and subsequently at the Mariinsky Theatre. He is passing on the tradition to students at his academy in Greenvale.